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Featured Festival: Loveland Loves BBQ, Bands & Brews

Nothing feels as much like summer as a cold beer in one hand and a pulled pork sandwich in the other – welcome to Loveland Loves BBQ, Bands & Brews.

This event always takes place on the second weekend in July. Through the years, this free event has grown to become one of Northern Colorado’s premiere summer festivals.

On Friday morning, downtown Loveland starts to smell like delicious barbecued meat, and by the time the festival opens at 3 p.m., folks are ready to eat, drink and be merry. While it has a community-festival feel, Loveland Loves BBQ, Bands & Brews attracts lots of out-of-towners, as well as locals.

Here’s how the event works. The barbecue and beer vendors take over several huge parking lots in downtown Loveland. It’s free to attend the event, but you will need to buy tokens for beer and food. Once you’ve got a pocket full of tokens it’s time to eat. I usually do a quick walk through to see who is serving what and then go back through to try a little bit of this and a little bit of that.

The stage is set up in the parking lot that borders Cleveland Avenue. Tables, chairs and shade tents are scattered in the area so that people may sit and enjoy the bands. It will be crowded, but if you’re patient, spots under the tents do open up.

In addition to food, bands and beer, there’s also a marketplace where festival goers can do some shopping, a car show on Saturday, an interactive art competition at the Feed & Grain and more. It’s a great weekend to visit downtown Loveland, Colorado.